Care and treatment rendered to individuals whose health problems are of a long-term and continuing nature. Rehabilitation facilities, nursing homes, and mental hospitals may be considered chronic care facilities.

Chronic care is care required by a person who is chronically ill or has a functional disability (physical or mental) whose acute phase of illness is over, whose vital processes may or may not be stable and who requires a range of services and medical management that can only be provided by a hospital.

care (different from acute care) furnished to treat an illness, injury or condition, which does not require hospitalization, which may be expected to be of long duration without any reasonably predictable date of termination, and which may be marked by occurrences requiring continuous or periodic care as necessary.

Long term care of individuals with long standing, persistent diseases or conditions. It includes care specific to the problem as well as other measures to encourage self-care, to promote health, and to prevent loss of function.

the ongoing provision of medical, functional, psychological, social, environmental, and spiritual care services that enable people with serious and persistent health and/or mental conditions to optimize their functional independence and well-being, from the time of condition onset until problem resolution or death. Chronic care conditions are multidimensional, interdependent, complex and ongoing.

Chronic care refers to medical care which addresses preexisting or long term illness, as opposed to acute care which is concerned with short term or severe illness of brief duration. Chronic medical conditions include, but are not limited to, asthma, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, congestive heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver, hypertension and depression. Chronic medical care accounts for more than 75% of health care dollars spent in the US.